United Kingdom: Complete subsea hydrocarbon processing system ///

Considerable progress has been made during the past year in building an autonomous subsea hydrocarbon processing system. As part of a 10-year design and development program, the 1999 ÆSOP Project demonstrated that hydrocarbon processing can be achieved by autonomous systems that are reprogrammable from a distant facility as field conditions warrant. The successful project further demonstrated that a complete offshore hydrocarbon processing system can be powered and controlled entirely by electricity, and that such a system can be housed in a readily deployable and retrievable System-Module. The Project consortium comprised Alpha Thames Ltd. of Upminster, UK; its parent company Kockums Engineering of Sweden; and Teamwork Technology of the Netherlands, with some funding from the Commission of the European Communities.